Best proper box sets

[Roy]

I only have a two and they are both excellent. I want to pick up some more. I hear that they are all great but if you only had to pick a few of them which ones would you say are best?

[kitkat]

Well, for swing DJs, I would not recommend Swing Tanzen Verboten! unless you've got a special interest in the liner notes, want some hard-to-find but badly mastered songs from Europe, or just want to listen. There are a few danceable tunes with quality decent enough to not kill the energy in them. Overall, though, I'm trying to condense it down to one or two discs for the binder, and most things get the comment, "Great song. Try to find another version of it--maybe an American band."

I don't regret getting the album! It's just that if you don't have a big collection, you should probably put your money into another set and wait until you've got all the basics and are starting to get esoteric before you buy this one.

That's the only Proper set I have.

[Campus Five]

Here's what I've got:
Gene Krupa - definately great. I don't think there are any other Krupa collections that could even compare. I'm sure its missing some stuff, but other than springing for the complete cronologicals, its a good as you'll do.
Charlie Ventura - the first disc has some promising small group swing, but the rest is entirely bop. Not particularly danceable either
Anita O'Day - Very good. A lot of her Krupa sides are on here without very many repeats with the Krupa box. Her Stan Kenton stuff is decent, and her mid-to-late 40's small group stuff is great - Zutty, Sid, Nick Fatool enough said.
Jack Teagarden - probably not the best. His career span is too long to really do it justice. I'm mostly interested in any late 30's-mid 40's stuff he's done. I don't really want to have to wade through 2 discs of Paul Whiteman and Smith-Bellew and Ben Pollack for it. Not bad, just not what I'm looking for. Also much of the Town hall concerts duplicate stuff on Louis Armstrong 40's box.
Benny Carter - I liked this one, but again it has little depth considering the length of his career. I wanted less early stuff and less later stuff. Still more Swing stuff that was danceable than the Big T box.
Count Basie - This seemed like all you'd ever need, but after buy the complete columbia and victor sets - boy was I wrong! I still haven't gotta around to the Decca set, but that's next. Still, it is 20 bucks pretty well spent.
Hittin' on All Six - the guita box. Clearly essential for any aspiring guitar players or just big guitar fans. Not great for DJ's. When I got it, I was really excited about it, but didn't spin anything off it. The Charlie Christian and Django here will easily dupe anything you've got, but still the rest is well worth while for guitar fans/players.

I've heard the Hampton box is great. I'm holding off because I want to get the complete Hampton small groups sides, and the only way to do that without a lot of repeats, is to go the Chronological route.

I'm definately looking into the Engine Room set of Drumming - it funny how much of the Feetwarmers repitoire came from that set. That also means there should be plenty of spinnable stuff on it. I was interested in the Fats Waller box, but I'm only really interested in his late 30's-40's stuff. Plus it doesn't have Moppin' and Boppin'. I think the Ben Webster box would dupe to much of Ellington, and I already have everything Lester Young recorded from 1936-1951 on other discs.

I would love to hear about the Slim Galliard, Roy Eldridge, Mildred Bailey, Ella Fitzgerald, Woody Herman and Johnny Hodges boxes.

[GemZombie]

I have quite a few of the Box sets. And I'll tell you that there aren't many that I wouldn't recommend.

Off the top of my head here are the sets I have, so if you have a specific question on any of these I'd be glad to give a review, but seeing as I have so many, or have so many at my disposal, I'll not try to review them now.

Anita O'Day
Hittin' on All Six - The History of Jazz Guitar
Ben Webster
Duke Ellington
Wynonie Harris
Louis Jordan
Ella Fitzgerald
Fats Waller
Hoosier Hot Shots
Gettin' Funky - The Birth of New Orleans R&B
Slim Gaillard
Roy Eldridge
Count Basie
Glenn Miller
Illinois Jaquet
Lionel Hampton
Benny Carter
T-Bone Walker
Dinah Washington
Sidney Bechet
The Big Horn


Others that we have at the station that I've listened to and can review:

Woody Herman
Miles Davis
Jo Stafford
Stan Kenton
Sister Rosetta Tharpe
Lester Young
Gene Krupa
Jazz at the Philharmonic - The First 10 years
The History of Jazz Drumming
That Arrangers Touch
Django Reinhardt
Mildred Bailey
Nat King Cole
Jack Teagarden
Billie Holiday


I know there are others that the station has, but i'm drawing a blank. So ya, ask me for specifics and i'll let you know what I think of it. Just go through the box sets at www.propermusic.com and pick out some that you think your interested in. They have a lot of bepop and other sets that don't interest me much, so i haven't bothered to commit those to memory.

Oh, and in addition to those, there are a number of sets feating country swing and the like that I can review. we have a ton of the proper pairs, and single disc proper introductions that i might be able to review. All in all, i have over 100 box sets, pairs, and singles i can pick from at the radio station.

[Roy]

Ben Webster
Fats Waller
Hoosier Hot Shots
Slim Gaillard
Illinois Jaquet
Lionel Hampton
T-Bone Walker
Sidney Bechet
The Big Horn

These one's all look interesting to me I left out the few that are I found interesting that have already been mentioned in this thread or artists that I have a huge amount of their stuff already.

I have the Roy Eldridge CD. I'm not an expert on his career by any means but the first 2 CD's in the set rock the house lots of danceable stuff. There is only 1 song song that overlaps with a Gene Krupa best of compilation I have. I'm blown away by the sound quality of the first 4 songs with Teddy Hill and Teddy Lee Orchetras. I have not listened to the last 2 CD's yet. I need to go back and do that.

[Serg]

Roy, if you chose to pick up just a few now I would recomend the Illinois Jaquet and the Lionell Hampton. Both are great. After that I would get the Fats Waller and the Woody Herman.

I also have:

Swing Tanzen Verbotten: Some interesting Nazi Propaganda songs but poor musicianship.

Sidney Bechett: Lots of Trad Jazz songs

Dinah Washington: Just got it. Have not heard yet.

Ben Webster: It is a must. Great songs all around.

For the folks who have those. Please post some information:

Hoosier Hot Shots
Jazz at the Philharmonic - The First 10 years
Jack Teagarden

Serg

[GemZombie]

Ben Webster
Fats Waller
Hoosier Hot Shots
Slim Gaillard
Illinois Jaquet
Lionel Hampton
T-Bone Walker
Sidney Bechet
The Big Horn

These one's all look interesting to me I left out the few that are I found interesting that have already been mentioned in this thread or artists that I have a huge amount of their stuff already.

Indeed the Roy Eldridge set is great, as you already have it I'll just leave it at that.

Ben Webster: Lots of great stuff here. Some slight overlap with some other sets (Ellington for example), but I'm afraid that's to be expected on almost all of the sets. The first discs are mostly his side works, so you get a taste of a bunch of other groups, which to me is a huge plus! Love this set.

Fats Waller: Another great set. I noticed both Reuben and Tonya DJing from this set, and I know others who picked it up. It's fantastic. Highly recommend it.

Hoosier Hot Shots: Mostly Novelty tunes. Not recommended if you are looking for lots of dance music, but it's fun from a historical point of view.

Slim Gaillard: Good set. Slim and Slam did a lot of semi-novelty stuff too, but it's got all the standards, so it's a set you can get and probably never buy another Slim Gaillard collection, unless of course you find a set with that ellusive version of the Hellzapoppin' Jam, which the proper set does not include.

Illinois Jaquet: Pretty good set, lots of long and live tunes at the end of the set, so I don't necessarily DJ from this much, but I still like the set.

Lionel Hampton: This is one of my favorite sets, practically every song is dancable. This is just a must have in my opinion.

T-Bone Walker: This is mostly a Blues Set, a few dancable tunes. I love blues (real blues), and this stuff is pretty good. I don't do blues dancing, so i really can't say if this works for that or not.

Sidney Bechet: The first Bechet music I bought, and boy am I glad I got this set. Great set. If you don't have much Bechet, this is a must have.

The Big Horn: I'm a sucker for honkin' Tenor Sax, and late 40's R&B, so this set is great in my opinion. It just depends on whether or not that works for you to DJ from. If so there are some great tunes on their. Quite a few original versions of some songs that Indigo Swing and Swing Session pull from, which is neat.

and for Serg:

Jack Teagarden: I've DJ'd from this once, but haven't gotten all the way throught it. However, from what I did listen to I'd have to say this is a great set too. The first disc was pretty early pre-swing era stuff as I recall, so I didn't listen to it yet (the guy who does the show before me concentrates on that music, so i didn't listen use that disc).

Jazz at the Philharmonic: Can't really say whether I'd recommend this or not. Later era Jazz and just a spattering of things from the JATP means this probably doesn't do much for me from a dance point of view. I read someone else's review and they just gave it a luke-warm review, saying that there were better JATP sets.

[GemZombie]

Well, for swing DJs, I would not recommend Swing Tanzen Verboten! unless you've got a special interest in the liner notes, want some hard-to-find but badly mastered songs from Europe, or just want to listen. There are a few danceable tunes with quality decent enough to not kill the energy in them. Overall, though, I'm trying to condense it down to one or two discs for the binder, and most things get the comment, "Great song. Try to find another version of it--maybe an American band."

I don't regret getting the album! It's just that if you don't have a big collection, you should probably put your money into another set and wait until you've got all the basics and are starting to get esoteric before you buy this one.

That's the only Proper set I have.

I think I'd also have a problem playing Nazi propoganda songs in public. That's just me though.

[gatorgal]

I just found the Wynonie Harris set in a local bookstore and I'm in love. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

I'm interested in the Anita O'Day, Lionel Hampton and an anthology they have called Broke, Black and Blue.

Thanks all for your comments.

Tina

[kitkat]

Only one CD of 4 has Nazi propaganda songs. Some aren't that bad ("Let's Go Slumming" is turned into a misinformation song claiming the British are excited to go bombing France), whereas others are extremely racist.

Most of the rest are French & Belgian bands. There are a few songs in German--I've looked up the lyrics to one, so far. It seems to be a cute, somewhat religious folksong turned into swing. "On Monday, we go do this, so such and such will happen," and the action is some church activity.

[GemZombie]

Only one CD of 4 has Nazi propaganda songs. Some aren't that bad ("Let's Go Slumming" is turned into a misinformation song claiming the British are excited to go bombing France), whereas others are extremely racist.

Most of the rest are French & Belgian bands. There are a few songs in German--I've looked up the lyrics to one, so far. It seems to be a cute, somewhat religious folksong turned into swing. "On Monday, we go do this, so such and such will happen," and the action is some church activity.

Thanks for the info, I had assumed the entire collection would be littered in that stuff. We have the collection at the radio station, perhaps I can find some stuff to play. One of the nice things about DJing a radio show is that i dont' have to constantly worry about pleasing dancers, I know I have listeners who will appreciate the historic aspect of these things too.

[Jerry_Jelinek]

I'm a bit surprised the Louis Armstrong set hasn't been mentioned.

For listening, this is a MUST have set for the Armstrong fans.

For dancing I would guess probably 1/3 to 1/2 of the set would be good for that.

The Lionel Hampton set is excellent for LOTS of dance stuff and listening.

The Sidney Bechet is excellent for both.

For pure farce, the Spike Jones is great. Nothing for dancing, but be prepared to laugh like crazy.

[GemZombie]

I'm a bit surprised the Louis Armstrong set hasn't been mentioned.

For listening, this is a MUST have set for the Armstrong fans.

For dancing I would guess probably 1/3 to 1/2 of the set would be good for that.

The Lionel Hampton set is excellent for LOTS of dance stuff and listening.

The Sidney Bechet is excellent for both.

For pure farce, the Spike Jones is great. Nothing for dancing, but be prepared to laugh like crazy.

Doh, I can't believe I missed that one too. The Armstrong set is quite good. I haven't listened to the Spike Jones set yet.

[echocampfire]

I recently got the Sidney Bichet Proper box set. It's great, but it's worth mentioning it lacks "Blues my Naughty Sweetie Gives to Me" which is so popular these days.

[Nando]

Did anyone review the Anita O'Day Proper Box Set yet?